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Help change a life

Bursary scheme for innercity young people

Our students are drawn from a diverse urban community. Many live in lone-parent households or where there is no adult in employment. They live complex lives, compounded by low income and a poverty of experience. Some have involvement with the Police.

Despite achieving beyond expectations at the College, they cannot afford to remain in education post-16 since there is no longer any financial support available even for the poorest student.

In a unique collaboration with Citi, and a private donator, both have agreed to sponsor bursaries for some of our students. The scheme enables them to undertake Level III qualifications in Further Education with vital financial support. This inspired and generous funding results in students gaining the necessary qualifications to undertake degree courses at university and become successful members of the community. In essence, this funding gives them a more optimistic future.

Our current cohort of Bursary students are studying for a range of qualifications, from Electrical Engineering to Business Administration to Creative Media – and of course Art.
We hope that with your generosity, we can extend the Bursary to more students this year. It costs just £3500 to sponsor a student for the two years of their pre-university course. This gives them enough money per week to pay for travel, food and books.

You can help to change a life – buy a picture, give us a donation, or fund a bursary. Please email bursary@abbeymanorcollege.com for more information.

Ed:X presents reproductions of selected artworks, inspired by the Pop Art movement, produced by the Art & Design students from Abbey Manor College. The work forms part of a long-term self-portrait project that started in 2009, and explores issues gathered around a dichotomy of self and other, of how we see ourselves and how we are perceived by the outside world. Every year, each Art student produces one of these stunning and vibrant self-portraits, originally painted on large boards, contributing to a collection that is slowly becoming, as a whole, the portrait of a generation.

The same methodology is used for the various pieces but different personalities are behind each image. The choice of colour, the brush stroke or drawing quality, the minute attention to detail in some or the abstract and more expressionist feel of others, tell us a different story about each artist.

Throughout the entire process, students are encouraged to direct their gaze inward and to share their perception of how they see themselves in order to create a final piece that challenges the negative image the public often has of young people, especially those excluded from mainstream education.